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Monday, August 15, 2011

Easy Drapery Panels

The window treatments for every room in the downstairs of our home are now hanging and I am thrilled! Two adjustments need to be made, but I'm happy to say that it's coming together. And, now that we have neighbors, I have to add some mini-blinds to the kitchen, so hopefully we'll be getting those this week.

Drapes are my absolute favorite window treatments, so with the exception of faux roman shades in the kitchen, every room downstairs has some form of drapery panels. (I'll be sharing the others with you soon). The Dining Room, as you probably know, has been my big project, of late, and Friday night, literally 10 minutes before our dinner guests arrived, my husband hung the drapes. I went back and forth on the fabric choice, but ended up with a Waverly pattern that I love. Our fabric outlet in town had one remnant piece that was a little less than 3 yards, so I did have to order another cut, but I still saved a ton of money (I even found some blackout lining--pre-hemmed--for $1/yard, so I snatched up everything they had) and I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

I like to be able to fit the vacuum cleaner under my drapes without having to push them to the side.

Because drapery panels are my favorite, I thought I would do a semi-tutorial on how to make them. I guess you could call these 'lazy girl' drapery panels. There are more sophisticated ways to make drapes, but these are just your plain old simple ones that require minimal cutting and simple hardware. You see, no matter how hard I try, cutting a straight line is just really complicated for me, so the less cutting involved, the better! Plus, having two little ones running around demands sewing projects that take up as little brain power as possible (I'm a novice with the sewing machine).

First, measure your windows and determine the finishedlength of your drapes (i.e. distance from where it will hang on the hardware to where you want it to fall on or near the ground). To that finished length, add 8 inches for a 2-inch bottom hem, or 10 inches for a 3-inch bottom hem. Cut the fabric to this length.

Next, determine the finished width of your panel, and add 3 inches to that measurement. Cut the fabric to this size.

*My dining room window is actually two windows that are separated by a 4-inch strip of dry-wall. I'm not really sure why they did it this way, but I decided to treat it as if it was one window. Since I absolutely hate cutting fabric, I made my panels each the width of the fabric (54"), and I didn't even cut off the selvage!*

Once your fabric panels have been cut, cut the drapery lining (lining protects the fabric from becoming faded and provides a more sophisticated look from the outside. No one wants to see what color your drapes are from the outside of your home). The lining should be 3 inches narrower than the fabric panel width, and 2 inches shorter.

Next, make the hem on the fabric panel. This is done by folding fabric to the wrong side 6 inches (for a 3-inch hem) or 4 inches (for a 2-inch hem).

Iron the fold so you have a nice crisp edge.

Then, bring the raw end of this fold and tuck it against the pressed edge. Press again.

Pin in place.

Stitch close to the folded edge of the seam, creating the bottom hem for your panel.

Repeat this process for the lining fabric, creating the hem on the lining.

Lay the fabric panel and lining panel right sides together, lining the top edges together, and centering the lining on the fabric.

Pin the fabric to the lining on each side of the panel (do not sew the tops or bottoms together), being careful to keep the fabric from shifting. If you're worried about the fabric shifting you can always pin the top edges together while you work, to ensure that the lining will be pinned straight to the fabric. Sew sides using a 1/2-inch or 5/8-inch seam allowance. Since I left the selvage on mine, I just used the selvage line as my stitching line which made it pretty easy.

(Sorry I don't have a picture of this one, but I think you get the idea).

Turn the panel right side out, making sure that an equal amount of fabric is on each side of the lining and press.

To finish the top and create a rod pocket, fold the top over 4 inches to the wrong side. Press, then bring the raw end in to the pressed edge, press again and pin. (This is the same process as used for the bottom hem).

*I was working with less fabric than I should have had on my remnant piece, so I had to make the rod pocket a bit skimpier than I wanted, which is why you see in the picture below that I only folded 2 1/2-inches to the wrong side. If you're skimping like I did, follow these next few bits, otherwise skip to the part where it says, "stitch rod pocket in place, stitching close to the top folded edge".

Turn the raw edge under 1/2-inch, press and pin in place.

This hole will become the rod pocket

If you're going to 'cheat' like I did, you can take that raw edge that you turned in, and simply fold the end at an angle so it looks a bit cleaner from the outside.

Stitch rod pocket in place, stitching close to the top folded edge.

Now, you can either hang using the rod pocket, or you can clip on some rings and slide those onto your rod. It's nice to have an option. Just be sure that you measured correctly from the beginning because the length will be different depending on how you hang your drapes.

You can be done here, but if you left the selvage on like I did, you may want to do this next little step.

The bottom of my panels looked like this:

You can see here how the lining is shorter than the fabric.

I didn't want this much of the selvage to show on the inside of my panel, so I decided to do one small stitch and hide it a bit.

Starting at the bottom corner of that selvage, fold in to the side edge, at a 45 degree angle.

Stitch at an angle, close to folded edge.

It will look like this when you're done:

Be sure to clip your threads!

It's not necessary, but if you hate cutting fabric as much as I do and want to leave the selvages on, this is a way to make it look a bit better.

I love those panels! My mother in law just got a new sewing machine, so I'm trying to get her to give me her old one. I really, REALLY want to learn how to make drapery panels...b/c it's more custom and cheaper!

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Meet Lauren

Wife and mother of four. I always wanted to have these roles, but never anticipated it would look the way it does. My days and hands are full, but as I seek God and cling to His grace, I can live this life in great anticipation of what He is working in me--all of it 'from scratch'.